Chapter 3Love, Misplaced

When I woke again, the vast hospital room was empty save for me. I forced myself to reach for my phone. An invitation to join the research team had arrived. I quickly scanned it, then signed my name. This was a top-secret national research team. A long time ago, I had turned down their offer for Caleb’s sake. But I never imagined that, in the end, they would be the ones to embrace me. Seeing the flight details for three days later on my phone, I finally allowed myself to breathe a sigh of relief.

Caleb walked in with a meal tray just as I put my phone down. Seeing my movements, he casually asked, “What are you doing?” I smoothed the smile from my face, tucking my phone further away, my voice flat. “Nothing.” Caleb looked at the woman who had been expressionless since he walked in, a flicker of unease stirring within him. He placed the food on the table, about to speak, when Stella’s special ringtone chimed.

“Caleb, didn’t you say you’d come help me pick out rings? Where are you?”

After hanging up, Caleb left without a backward glance. “I have things to take care of today. I’ll pick you up when you’re fully recovered.” But he never showed up, not even on the day I was discharged. Ever since Stella came into his life, “busy” became his constant excuse. Busy taking care of a sick Stella, busy taking Stella out. All his time was devoted to Stella, leaving me with only his retreating back, time and again. But this time, I wouldn’t wait for him anymore.

During my hospital stay, only a single nurse’s aide cared for me. At lunchtime, when she brought me my meal, she spoke enviously of Stella, who was on the same floor. “I heard her husband paid a high price to have her room redecorated by a designer during her surgery because she couldn’t stand the regular rooms. And he personally cooks every meal for her after consulting with a nutritionist.”

“They say her husband is a CEO, always so busy, yet he still insists on visiting her three times a day and staying with her every night.”

I ate the hospital meal, tasteless and bland, suddenly recalling that I had never been cared for by him with such devotion. Three years ago, my research team was caught in an accident, buried under an avalanche. Before hypothermia set in, I used my last ounce of consciousness to call Caleb. But his first words were a complaint, accusing me of interrupting his time watching fireworks with Stella. After being rescued by border patrol, I saw a video Stella had sent me: Caleb kneeling, gently rubbing her ankle after she’d supposedly twisted it. I ignored Stella’s gloating, blocking her number directly.

When I returned home, Caleb stood before me, Stella wrapped in his arms, her eyes red-rimmed. Disregarding my frostbitten skin, he dragged me from my bed to the floor, forcing me to kneel and apologize to Stella. He only released me when a passing nurse discovered my reopened wounds. As he left with Stella, his face was grim. “Stella isn’t well. Can’t you be more understanding? If you upset her again, you and your sick mother can get out of my house.”

Shaking off the memories, I finished the food in the box. This unpalatable meal was the last I would ever eat.